Song of the Week: “Mr. November” by The National

Song of the Week is, for now, the only feature on Stetson’s Garden. I absolutely love listening to music, and more than that, I love sharing the music I love with other people. So, I plan on showcasing one song at the end of each week and writing about why I love it, why I felt the need to share it, why I think it is a special song worth sharing.

This is some performance. I love the way Matt Berninger starts the song crouched in a ball, like a fighter readying himself for a final round. I love the way he climbs into the crowd, eventually to be absorbed by it. I love the way he screams the chorus I won’t fuck us over!, his voice cracking out of singing and into a desperate pleading. I love the way he crumples against the stage at the song’s finish, drained of emotion (and perhaps filled with other intoxicants…).

The song was release on the band’s third album, back in 2006. It was somehow partially inspired by John Kerry’s 2004 election campaign. In 2008, the National jumped headfirst into the political arena, deeming then Presidential-hopeful Barrack Obama to be “Mr. November” on a t-shirt, which was sold by the band with profits being donated to the Obama campaign.

It’s a song about high school, I think, which makes it a perfect commentary on the state of American politics, especially the 2008 Presidential election.

The populations of high schools can separated into two groups, the cools and the uncools, with tens of other smaller cliques falling beneath these two categories. There are the people going to the parties and the people who are ignored when the invitations are distributed. Burnouts, nerds, band geeks and outcasts find themselves pitted against jocks, plastics and other popular people, and, somehow, all of these groups are, to varying degrees, fighting against each other. It’s anxiety filled and exhausting.

But there’s one kid who walks among all peoples, regardless of creed. Students love him. Teachers gush over him. He exudes a charisma as capable of commanding the respect of the soon-to-be-dropout as it is of earning the attention of the head cheerleader. In the yearbook, he is voted most likely to travel the world, even though, as of senior year, he’s never left the country. When he walks down the hall, people scurry out of his way to let him pass and fall in line behind him. He patiently awaits his upcoming election, this fall, as the school’s Homecoming King. He is Mr. November.

And we can only hope that he doesn’t fuck us over.

Obama 2012.